Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Postmedia's Failing War on Justin Trudeau

Somewhere in the heart of the dilapidated Postmedia empire, its big boss Paul Godfrey must be growing increasingly desperate.Desperate to bring down Justin Trudeau, before Postmedia goes down like the Titanic.For how else to explain that his scrawny scribblers are still grinding out story after story with the same basic headline?JUSTIN TRUDEAU IS BREAKING HIS PROMISES!!!!That must be about the twentieth one I've read in the last three weeks. Like all the others it's just wishful thinking and hot air, with a stench of desperation.And sadly for Godfrey and his Con gang, it's just not working.

Trudeau is more popular than ever, the runaway choice for Newsmaker of the Year.He scored a stunning come-from-behind election victory, became the first offspring of a prime minister to ascend to the top job himself and the first federal leader to vault his party straight from a distant third place into office, circled the globe and created an international sensation. All in the last three months of 2015.
And now he's been selected as Canada's Newsmaker of the Year.While Postmedia is the one whose time is almost up, and is heading for a hard landing.And as Andrew Mitrovica writes, Godfrey has only himself to blame.

What it all points back to is Godfrey himself — a well-connected Conservative supporter who sees nothing at all wrong with using his platforms to try to browbeat readers into supporting his pet politicians. Bootlicking the party in power isn’t a long-term strategy to grow readership; its 12 leading dailies lost 179,868 paid subscribers in just the three years to the end of 2014, while its revenues dropped by about a quarter over the same period. The chain has continued to liquidate staff and consolidate operations as its business model implodes.Godfrey has led his demoralized troops to the verge of economic disaster.Earlier this month, The Globe and Mail’s media reporter, James Bradshaw, turned the knife on his newspaper’s chief rivals by noting that Standard & Poor’s had downgraded Postmedia Inc.’s credit rating “to the same grade ailing Greece.”And him and his grubby scribblers are the last ones who should be complaining about Justin Trudeau's deficit problems.Postmedia Inc. isn’t facing a “sea of red” — it’s more like an ocean. The irresistible irony here is that this media chain is home to the nation’s leading free-enterprise editorial cheerleaders — people who have spent their careers lecturing the lefties on the importance of keeping the books balanced. Do as we say, not as we do.

When they don't know what they're doing, and neither did their beloved Stephen Harper...

Who they always forget to blame for the mess he left behind. In the manner you would expect from those who serviced that depraved leader so well, and for so long, in such a shameless manner.You know, when the definitive history of Harperland is written, and historians finally agree on why the Con regime went down in flames...

I'm pretty sure they'll conclude that Stephen Harper could never put the needs and feelings of Canadians ahead of his foul right-wing ideology.And I suspect they'll say the same thing about Postmedia.Godfrey and his Cons never understood their own people.They thought they could brainwash away their hopes for a more decent Canada. Or bury their dreams. So they missed the bus to the future. They went down with the dictator.And like him they destroyed themselves...

Oh well. I guess that's life eh? Warm your hands and your hearts with the warm glow of the Con media.And don't forget to bring the marshmallows...

Simon, you just single handedly penned the line of the year: "so they missed the bus to the future". What a perfect way to turn the page on those sorrid 10 years of watching the country be transformed in that square peg into a round hole sort of way that harper "envisioned". I do feel empathy though for the many journalists and support staff losing their jobs because of their bosses' stupidity. The blame squarely lands on Godfrey's shoulders, however, the man knows no shame and will come out smelling like a rose with the trail of ruined careers he will leave in his path. The yellow front page disguise of an election's Canada bulletin was his crowing jewel and quite possibly the dumbest move ever in Canadian journalism.

hi bcwaterboy....I'm glad you liked that line, because I did too. ;) I've come to believe that Justin Trudeau's victory is a big sign that generational change is finally happening in Canada. And while I too don't enjoy seeing people lose their jobs, Postmedia should have seen that wave coming, and surfed it rather than trying to stop it, and now they're going to get swamped....

Post media boss must think we are all pretty stupid. All MSM stories and headlines are, like you said Simon, the same in that JT has "broken his promises". I broke my foot on election night, so I know how many weeks it's been. I'm still not healed! Not enough time to heal a bone in a healthy person, certainly isn't enough time to break election promises....If you are one to believe in zombies, then it is evident that they are all working as journalists for MSM in Canada. That's the only explanation I can think of.

Question, is Post Media publicly traded? If so, don't shareholders notice that someone is driving their investment into the ground?

Thank you Simon for bring this part of the equation to the discussion. This is the part that actually oisses me off the most. Well almost, it all pisses me off.

hi TS...I'm sorry to hear that you broke your foot on election night. That'll teach you to party so hard, and jump up and down so high with excitement. ;) But yes, the Postmedia bosses must think we are all stupid. And it tells you how their bosses think, when they side with the losers for ideological reasons, even if it costs their organization readers. But then Postmedia is owned by a hedge fund which has no interest in the quality of the journalism. And is only interested in cash flow, and whatever parts they can sell off. The other Con media will also have to learn from their mistakes, or they will follow them to the scrapyard....

hi anon...yes that is sad, and the same can be said for quite a few of the other papers in the Postmedia empire. The changing times affected them all, but Godfrey and his gang only damaged them further....

Lets not forget Gordfrey's forced take-over of the Globe & Mail's editorial endorsement of the Conservative party, but not Stephen Harper. As Charley Heston once said about guns after Columbine, the only way anyone would have wrestled the power of the neo-theo-cons was from Harper was from his cold dead hands. He was a tyrannical dictator, who had no idea on how to share. To even insinuate that one could still vote for the Cons and then Harper would magically disappear just shows you how out of touch the corporate media is with reality. Just be thankful that there are blogs and news sites like Simon's which print news that the lame stream media ignore or purposely hide to keep the sheeple docile and ignorant.

hi GreazedLitenen...No we can't forget the Globe editorial board's absurd Solomonic decision, to throw out Harper but not his party. And it will cover all those responsible with well deserved ridicule for at least the next fifty years. But what that also showed is how the corporate bosses have no respect for ethical journalism and when push comes to shove it's all about naked ideology. Fortunately we do have a strong social media contingent on our side, and there is an alternative press out there that is well worth supporting. So if the Con media keeps playing games, they will find we won't miss them...

I hope the Globe and Mail falls on their butts. Corporate media has always been behind the Cons and stuck behind the worst government in Canadian history by supporting the Conservatives in the election.

hi Linda...I feel the same way. The Con's record was so appalling that no decent media organization should have endorsed them. And because the Con media was always apologizing for them, harper and his gang were able to stay in power much longer than they deserved, and do our country much harm...

The Vancouver Sun, part of the PostMedia group, is also so very past its best before date. They support what is left of the Harpercon crowd, and in B.C. that is Christy Clark and her cabal. named the B.C. Lieberal party, they aren't liberals, they're Cons. The Vancouver Sun and their columnists have yet to really critize the photo op queen and her minions. they hand out hundreds of millions of tax dollars to oil, gas, mining and no welfare and disability rate increases since 2007. Have $100 Million for "techn" but just a few million for specialized nurses and doctors, with the longest surgical wait lists in Canada. the child welfare dept. has 4 dead kids and the report says the child advocate makes "too many recommendations". Oh, and they're short about 140 social workers. No the Vancouver Sun doesn't report news, it issues press releases from the B.C. Lieberals and fails to report how much money B.C. is not taking in from natural resources or the massive increases in medical premiums. Whether you make $40K or $40M you still pay the same medical premiums for a couple: $138 per month. B.C. takes in more money in medical premiums than corporate taxes and does Post Media report or editorialize that? Na, not so much. The B.C. Lieberals take in more in from post secondary tutition fees than corporate taxes. Anything in an editorial about that? Na, not so much.

Post media needs to go. They aren't much of a newspaper. its as a previous poster said, bird cage liner producers.

Post media can try to critize Trudeau, but really, its very hard to have people believe it, they just need to turn on their computers for the truth and that is people like Trudeau and even if he were making mistakes, people just wouldn't care that much. For the first time in a long time people have P.M. who is fun and that goes a long way.

PostMedia didn't seem all that upset with Mike deJong and his lies about growth in B.C. PostMedia didn't point out that the Conference Board of Canada, is paid over $400K a year by Christy Clark, so that 3% growth rate, not so much. Income for the province is tanking, and they don't like providing social benefits like an improved CPP. In B.C. if we want to know how bad the economy is we turn to Norm Farrell's blog In-Sight. uses the government's own figures to inform us how badly we are off. Does PostMediA use those figures, not so much. How can a newspaper be relevant when it doesn't report the news?

hi e.a.f... if you remember Postmedia was the first media organization to start getting its staff to write advertorials which are really ads masquerading as journalism. And in that regard entered into an agreement with Big Oil to make that industry look better than it really is. And that in my opinion was the beginning of the end. For now I can't read anything by anyone in that chain and not wonder what I'm reading. Journalistic credibility is a bit like virginity. You only lose it once....

Post Media is a Zombie resurrected from the graveyard of defunct businesses thanks to the miracle of financial engineering and zero interest money. Its purpose wasn't to benefit society but to return a profit through debt repayment to the wizards (the 1%) that conjured up the elixir. Once that's done its back to the boneyard leaving everyone else but the wizards poorer from the experience.Eventual failure is nothing to celebrate for the average person, just a sad testament to how far a certain type of capitalism has strayed off course.Thankfully it is not all capitalism as there are entrepreneurs working everywhere to improve themselves and society as a result but unfortunately we have to take the rotten along with the good.RT

hi RT...yes you're right, it is a bit of a Frankenstein creature. And it does symbolize the state of our corrupted capitalist system, where short term greed trumps everything. I don't want to see our media organizations fail, I just want them to be more balanced and represent our values better. But if they are going to defy the wishes of most Canadians, then they will deserve what they get....

PostMedia papers aren't good enough for my birds to shit on as a cage liner.In addition to purging the public ranks of rank Conservatives, he should also do everything possible to ensure that not ONE SINGLE TAXPAYER DOLLAR gets spent on anything related to PostMedia, unlike Sticky Steve who threw billions at his buddies in lamestream media.

hi anon...yes I agree, I realize that Justin Trudeau wants to be as nice as possible, and I applaud his for that. But they need to stop feeding the Con machine that only wants to kill them, and will never change. So the harder they hit them the better.. Some people in this country have very short memories. But I don't and I can't forget or forgive....

A. 9:02 p.m. in B.C. the Post Media gets lots of money from the provincial government. its what most likely keeps the Vancouver Sun and province in the black.

Tax dollars galore to the Vancouver sun and Province and in return they don't say anything bad about the B.C. Lieberals and Christy Clark and her cabal. The highest child poverty rate in Canada for 15 yrs and the Vancouver Sun is good to go with that. Just print another ad from the B.C. Lieberals (cons). A mining dam collapse at Mount Polley. Nothing to see here folks, a dam broke, ruined all sorts of land, but that's O.K. its big mining, big friends of Christy Clark who just is such good friends with Post Media. How else can you explain their political columnists don't write much about anything beyond singing the praises of the "photo op queen" of B.C..

hi e.a.f...I had no idea the Vancouver Sun was such a shill for the BC Liberals.But then BC has two very good alternative publications the Tyee and the National Observer, and they are the kind of media we should be supporting....

Many do not know the Tyee and/or the N.O are out there. Two bloggers who frequently write about the subject are Norm Farrell who is great on all things financial and RossK of the Pacific Gazetter, which has a lot of comments about the not so great political columists Vaughn Palmer, The Dean, and Keith Baldry. The Gazetter is very entertaining to read and has some great music also. For what the Vancouver Sun and province are not reporting on, I also go to these two blogs.

Harvey Obverfeld, of keeping it real, blog is a retired journalist. Back in the day he chased politicians to get them to answer questions. He has some great columns about journalism in Canada and its sorry state. He is currently on vacation, so we in B.C. are having to cope and adjust.